INTRODUCTION

Drama and plays are useful in language learning for young learners. As
for young learners acquires language unconsciously. They offer children
world of supported meaning that they can relate to.
Pupils enjoy drama and play much, rather than sitting all day long in a
dull classroom. They like to move around and yet having hands on activity.
Learning through drama gives much impact to the pupils in the developing of
their language and also the aesthetic values of the drama itself. This is in line
with Piaget (1962) Dramatic play permits children to fit the reality of the
world into their own interests and knowledge. One of the purest forms of
symbolic thought available to young children, dramatic play contributes
strongly to the intellectual development of children.

Drama provides opportunities for multi-sensory, kinaesthetic responses

to stories and engages children in learning by doing at a number of
different levels. At a basic level, through listening and responding to
storytelling and doing short, introductory drama activities, children use
mime, sounds, gestures and imitation to show their understanding and to
make connections between language and corporal expression. This helps
young children associate actions, words and meanings and memorize key
language in a natural and enjoyable way.

TASK 1

THE STORY

Once there lived an ant and a grasshopper in a grassy meadow.

All day long the ant would work hard, collecting grains of wheat from the
farmer's field far away. She would hurry to the field every morning, as soon
as it was light enough to see by, and toil back with a heavy grain of wheat
balanced on her head. She would put the grain of wheat carefully away in
her larder, and then hurry back to the field for another one. All day long she
would work, without stop or rest, scurrying back and forth from the field,
collecting the grains of wheat and storing them carefully in her larder.
The grasshopper would look at her and laugh. 'Why do you work so hard,
dear ant?' he would say. 'Come, rest awhile, and listen to my song. Summer
is here, the days are long and bright. Why waste the sunshine in labour and
toil?'
The ant would ignore him, and head bent, would just hurry to the field a little
faster. This would make the grasshopper laugh even louder. 'What a silly little
ant you are!' he would call after her. 'Come, come and dance with me! Forget
about work! Enjoy the summer! Live a little!' And the grasshopper would hop
away across the meadow, singing and dancing merrily.

Summer faded into autumn, and autumn turned into winter. The sun was
hardly seen, and the days were short and grey, the nights long and dark. It
became freezing cold, and snow began to fall.

The grasshopper didn't feel like singing any more. He was cold and hungry.
He had nowhere to shelter from the snow, and nothing to eat. The meadow
and the farmer's field were covered in snow, and there was no food to be
had. 'Oh what shall I do? Where shall I go?' wailed the grasshopper. Suddenly
he remembered the ant. 'Ah - I shall go to the ant and ask her for food and
shelter!' declared the grasshopper, perking up. So off he went to the ant's
house and knocked at her door. 'Hello ant!' he cried cheerfully. 'Here I am, to
sing for you, as I warm myself by your fire, while you get me some food from
that larder of yours!'

The ant looked at the grasshopper and said, 'All summer long I worked hard
while you made fun of me, and sang and danced. You should have thought of
winter then! Find somewhere else to sing, grasshopper! There is no warmth
or food for you here!' And the ant shut the door in the grasshopper's face.
It is wise to worry about tomorrow today.

THE SCRIPT

Characters:
Three storytellers,
three ants,

grasshopper,
owls,
squirrels and
bears.

(Stage Directions: the owls, squirrels and bears are in a large semicircle
stage right; storytellers are stage left and the ants are in the centre of the
stage.)
Storyteller 1: One hot summers day
Storyteller 2: there were some ants working hard.
Storyteller 3: They were collecting food for the winter. (All the ants are
miming digging, pulling and pushing.)

Ant 1: I am so hot.
Ant 2: Me too!
Ant 3: This is very hard work.

Storyteller 1: They saw a grasshopper listening to some music on his iPod.

(Grasshopper passes by, singing and dancing; the ants stop work and look at
him.)
Storyteller 2: He was dancing
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Storyteller 3: and laughing and enjoying the lovely weather.

Grasshopper: Ants, you are so silly. You need to enjoy the sunshine.
(Ants start working again.)
Ant 1: We are working hard.
Ant 2: We want to have food for the winter. (Grasshopper keeps dancing.)
Storyteller 1: The grasshopper continued enjoying himself. (The Ants keep
working and move stage right.)
Storyteller 2: Winter started to come and the weather got colder and
colder.
Storyteller 3: The snow began to fall.
Storyteller 1: The grasshopper was cold and hungry. (Grasshopper rubs his
stomach and shivers. He looks at the owls who start to fly around the stage.)

Grasshopper: I am cold and hungry; perhaps my friends the owls will feed
me. Owls! Owls! Will you please feed me?

Owls: (Owls fly around the grasshopper and stop centre stage. They stand
around the grasshopper.) Twit Tuhooo! Oh no, we will not feed you. (They fly
back to their place in the semicircle.)

Grasshopper: Oh dear! I know, I will ask my friends the bears to feed me.
(Grasshopper walks towards the bears.) Bears! Bears! Please feed me.
(Bears are asleep so he wakes them up and they walk to the centre stage.)

Bears: (The bears are very angry that they have been woken up.) Growl!
Growl! Oh no, we will not feed you. (The bears go back to their place in the
semicircle.)
Storyteller 1: Then the grasshopper saw some squirrels. (The squirrels
mime eating nuts stage right.)

Grasshopper: Squirrels! Squirrels! Please feed me! (They squirrels walk

towards him.)
Squirrels: Oh no, we will not feed you. (They hop back to stage right.)

Storyteller 2: The grasshopper was very cold and hungry. He didnt know
what to do. (Grasshopper is shivering and rubbing his stomach.)
Storyteller 3: Then he thought of the ants. (The ants move to the centre of
the stage.)

Grasshopper: Ants! Ants! Please feed me. (The ants go into a huddle away
from the grasshopper.)

Storyteller 1: The ants thought about it and decided to give him some food.
(All the ants face the grasshopper.)

Ant 1: You must promise that next year you will work hard in the summer.
(Grasshopper gets down on his hands and knees.)
Grasshopper: Oh thank you Ants, I promise.

Storyteller 1: That summer the grasshopper kept his promise and worked
hard to collect food for the next winter. (Grasshopper mimes pushing,
pulling, carrying and digging with all the ants.)
Storyteller 2: The lesson of the story is: fail to prepare
Storyteller 3: prepare to fail

THE END

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JUSTIFICATION OF THE SELECTION

For this task, I chose the World of Stories Theme based on animals.
Through this theme, children can see that the stories are often captivating as
they are about situations, real or imagined, featuring characters, calling out
emotional responses from their minds. Through stories a child is also helped
to build a rich vocabulary which enables them to articulate their thoughts
and feelings more clearly.
Brown and Tomlinson, 1993 states that by using a quality stories,
children are exposed to rich vocabulary and excellent in writing styles, which
serve as good models for their own speaking and writing voices. In fact, the
use of the World of Story in ESL classroom may help the teacher to use it as
powerful tools to help the children engage with reading and also attract them
in role play during their lesson.

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The Ant and The Grasshopper is a very interesting and amusement

story indeed to be adapted into drama. The scene is mostly in the jungle and
part of it in a village area at the country side.This story fit my theme, world
of stories. There are few factors to be justified in selection of the stories to be
adapted into drama. Learner level is the most important criteria that must be
considered . It is also an important consideration in adapting the stories to
be scripted and to be performed in such play. In this stories, I found that it
really suits the students level in terms of text difficulty and also language
complexity which are vocabulary and sentence structure.
The contents of this story suit the pupils interest. According to
Nuttal(1982) The students preferences should not be neglected and a survey
of their tastes might help the teacher quite a lot. Students interest is
considered the first requirement that should take into consideration. Young
learners enjoy stories based on animals which they could easily associate the
content closely to their existing world knowledge, culture and tradition.
Children prefer stories that have many characters that they could enjoy and
imagine while reading it. They also prefer humorous stories and also stories
on enjoyable experiences.So, I feel that the story is very suitable to be
performed as play.
Stories can help young learners to improve their listening skills,
pronunciation, therefore potentially helping them to improve their speaking
skills. Stories can also be useful tools in the learning of vocabulary,
sentences structure and sentence pattern or in other words language
acquisition. The content of this story is easy to understand because the
usage of repetition of sentence structures and also the writer use simple
words to deliver the story. Many stories contain natural repetition of key
vocabulary. This help children to remember every detail, so they can
gradually learn to anticipate what is about to happen next in the story.What
makes this script particularly good for young children is its simplicity.
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Moreover, the rhyming nature of each of lines, the corresponding

movements, and the repetitive nature of the entire script help readers
understand and remember their parts. For the same reasons, a script like this
could also work well with English Language Learners.
In storytelling and drama, the usual norms of time, place and identity
are temporarily suspended as, for example, in a story which spans a hundred
years yet takes three minutes to tell, or a drama activity which transforms
the classroom into a jungle and all the children in it to hungry lions.
Storytelling and drama are above all shared, communal classroom events
which engage childrens interest, attention and imagination and develop
their language skills in a holistic way. They also appeal to children with
different intelligences and learning styles and provide a framework for
fostering social skills and attitudes, such as active listening, collaborating,
turn taking and respect for others, in a positive way.
Stories can be used for number of purposes and there are many
reasons why stories can be considered a valuable pedagogical tools. It can
also develop pupils in personal development, aesthetic development,
cultural development , language learning development and also the moral
values. In this story of The Ant and The Grasshopper there is good moral
value being elicit in the story. Besides, having fun performing the stories the
moral values should be conveyed to others as to share good values.
As conclusion, stories yet drama are useful in language learning for
young learners. As foryoung learners acquires language unconsciously. They
offer children world of supported meaning that they can relate to.

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HOW DRAMA DEVELOP CHILDRENS LANGUAGE AND

AESTHETIC VALUES
Pupils enjoy drama and play much, rather than sitting all day long in a
dull classroom. They like to move around and yet having hands on activity.
Learning through drama gives much impact to the pupils in the developing of
their language and also the aesthetic values of the drama itself. This is in line
14

with Piaget (1962) Dramatic play permits children to fit the reality of the
world into their own interests and knowledge. One of the purest forms of
symbolic thought available to young children, dramatic play contributes
strongly to the intellectual development of children.
For me, drama provides all the needs in the multiple intelligence sense.
It opens the opportunities for multi-sensory, musical kinesthetic, kinesthetic
responses to stories and it make children engages in learning unconsciously.
They actually learn the language without realizing it. At a basic level, through
listening and responding to storytelling and doing short, introductory drama
activities, children use mime, sounds, gestures and imitation to show their
understanding and to make connections between language and corporal
expression. This helps young children to associate actions, words and
meanings and memorize the dialogue or the language naturally and
enjoyable.
The use of drama provides a focus and support for children to use
some language from the story in an independent way besides having fun and
enjoyment. Drama or play help to building up the confidence and self-esteem
among the pupils. Sometimes it provides the opportunities for children to go
beyond the story and explore the issues, problems or moral dilemmas that
contains in it. This not only provides opportunities for children to use
language they know beyond the story script within a clearly defined
framework but also encourages them to develop critical and creative
thinking skills and to work with others in a collaborative way.
In addition, drama helps to develop sense of appreciation of the art of
other people and others culture. As for example, the story I chose to fit the
theme is taken from the Bengali Folktale. It was a very rare story and the
culture for the Malay background pupils. But it typical story of animals attract
the pupils to enjoy and having fun with the story and the drama. So,
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implementing other culture is not a burden for the pupils to understand or to

be neglected, it is how teacher carries out the content of the story. Another
form of appreciation is respect toward someone or something valued. In
relationships this translates as care, concern, fair treatment and courtesy.
Participation in drama helps to develop children's imagination. Drama
involves pretending in a variety of situations. It helps children develop
imagination, language skills, cooperation and other social skills, confidence,
and creative expression. It is also important for children to use their
imagination, partly because it allows them to understand history, other
cultures and other people. Teacher can also help them to develop their
imagination and creativity by making them think outside the square when
solving problems or working together in a drama. According to Fromberg and
Gullo (1992), play enhances language development, social competence,
creativity, imagination, and thinking skills.
Most importantly, the pupils have the confidence to express their own
thought and feelings. They learn to express themselves through language.
This helps children articulate their personal feelings and thoughts to others.
Besides that, they also need to have empathy towards others. Empathy is an
extension on building social awareness in children. They learn to identify the
feelings, ideas and attitudes of other people. During activities in of drama
classes, children have to put themselves in anothers shoes in order to make
decisions and solve problems. Thus helping them learn to be considerate of
others thoughts and feelings.
As a conclusion, drama can be a medium of language learning in a fun
and enjoyable way. It is the most effective and powerful way for young
children to learn also to develop all the aesthetic elements. Which are the
building of childrens confidence in expressing their thoughts and feeling,
developing imagination, appreciation of art of other people and culture. Play
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and drama provides children with opportunities to engage in concrete and

meaningful activities that enhance physical, language, social, and cognitive
development.

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TASK 2

COMMITTEE IN STAGE PERFORMANCE

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STORY : THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE

DIRECTOR

CIK WAN NORHAYATI BT WAN ABDUL RAHMAN

SCRIPTWRITER -

ALIATI KHAIRULNISYAK BT ISMAIL

PROPS

SITI HAZAR BT BADIR

NORISKILA BT NASHA

ROHANA BT MOHAMED

MAKE-UP ARTIST

COSTUME

CIK WAN NORHAYATI BT WAN ABDUL RAHMAN

ALIATI KHAIRULNISYAK BT ISMAIL

SOUNDMAN

NORFAIZAH BT MD NOR

BACKDROP

ZURAIDA BT ISA

CHARACTER

:
NARRATOR

NORISKILA BT NASHA

HARE

ALIATI

KHAIRULNISYAK

ISMAIL
TORTOISE

ISMAIL B MOKHTAR

FOX

SITI HAZAR BT BADIR

EAGLE

NORFAIZAH BT MD NOR

BEAR

FARIDAH BT ABDULLAH

TIGER

ROHANA BT MOHAMED

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THE GROUP SCRIPT

The Hare and the Tortoise

Characters:
Storyteller,
Hare,
Tortoise,
Foxes,
Tiger,
Bear and
an eagle.
(Stage Directions: The three storytellers are on the left hand side of the stage and the
tortoise is moving around the stage in slow motion.).
Storyteller: Once upon a time there lived a tortoise.
: He liked to go for a leisurely stroll by the edge of a big forest.
: One day a hare came bounding up towards him. (Hare comes running on the stage.)
Hare: (He pushes the tortoise out of the way and nearly knocks him over.) Out of my
way you slow coach. You must be so bored because it takes you so long to get
anywhere.
Storyteller: The tortoise looked up at the hare and said
Tortoise: I know I could beat you in a race any day.
Hare: You beat me? Dont make me laugh! I am so much faster than you. (He shows off
his muscles and starts to run up and down.)
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Storyteller: The hare laughed and laughed

Storyteller: Then he met fox. (Fox enter the centre of the stage.)
Hare: Foxes, do you think that tortoise could beat me in a race?
Foxes: Oh, no he couldnt. (Foxes shake their heads in disbelief.)
Tortoise: Oh yes, I could. (He nods his head.)
Storyteller: Then a tiger came to see what was happening. (tiger enter the centre of
the stage.)
Hare: tiger, do you think that tortoise could beat me in a race?
Tiger: Oh yes, he could. (The tiger nod his heads.)
Hare: Oh no he couldnt. (He shakes his head.)
Storyteller: The bear that were sleeping heard the noise and came trundling along.
(Bear enter the centre stage by making bear noise and taking big loud steps.)
Bear: Whats going on here?
Hare: The silly tortoise thinks he can be beat me in a race. What do you think?
Bear: Oh yes, he could. (They shake their heads.)
Storyteller : The animals continued to argue about who would win the race. (All the
animals start arguing with one another making lots of noise.)
Storyteller: Then, suddenly the eagle swooped down to where all the animals were.
(Eagle comes flying gracefully on to the stage.)
Eagle: (Eagle uses a whistle to stop the noise.) Whats going on here?
Hare: The silly tortoise thinks he can beat me in a race. Do you think he could beat me?
Eagle: I dont know but there is one way of finding out. Why dont you have a race?
Everyone: What a great idea. (They all start cheering.)

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Eagle: Right: Hare and Tortoise line up at the starting line. (The hare and the tortoise
start limbering up and they get ready at the start line.) On your marks, get set, GO!
Storyteller: All the animals cheered at the side as the hare ran off very quickly and the
tortoise just plodded along.
Storyteller: After a while the hare stopped and said
Hare: (He wipes his brow.) Im already half way through so I think I will have a nap in
the warm sunshine. (The hare starts to make himself comfortable, lies down and starts
snoring.)
Storyteller: The hare fell fast asleep and the tortoise walked steadily on and on.
Storyteller: The hare woke up suddenly. (He starts to yawn and stretch.)
Hare: What a nice sleep. No sign of the tortoise so I better stroll along and finish the
race.
Storyteller: The hare ran to the finish line.
Storyteller: Just as he got there he saw the tortoise crossing the line.
Storyteller: All the other animals were cheering and celebrating the tortoises victory.
(All the other animals start to congratulate the tortoise. The hare stomps off in anger.)
Storyteller: The lesson of the story is ..
Tortoise: Slow and steady wins the race.
Everyone: (except the hare who is sulking) Hip, Hip, Hooray! Hip, Hip, Hooray, Hip,
Hip, Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE END

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PROPS, COSTUMES PREPARATION AND REHEARSAL

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25

TASK 3

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WRITTEN REFLECTION
First and foremost, I would like to thank god for giving me the
opportunity to complete all the tasks contain inside LGA 3104 question
assignment. Allow me to show my greatest appreciation to my respected
lecturer, Miss Nagamah A/P Rajusanthian . The presence of her, in guiding
me throughout the tasks had contributed a lot in helping me completing my
assignment. Her hard work in delivering lots of useful knowledge to my
friends and me in the class for this semester would never be in vain. I could
say that Miss Nagamah had put so much effort especially when it comes to
her lecture hour. I really love when it comes to her lecture. I find that she has
her own way in delivering knowledge because the way she demonstrates
things to my friends and I is not the same as other lecturers. Whenever she
was giving her lecture, I will always have a pen and a paper on my table just
to jot down important key words that she suggested during her lecture. This
is mainly because I feel so interested and eager to listen to her lecture.
Besides that, we will also have some sort of discussion on our assignments
and tasks. Miss Nagamah did her part in explaining things that we do not
understand and commenting on our drafts of our assignments. I really
appreciate all the positive and negative comments that she gave. I take all
the comments as the opportunity for me to learn to be more effective in
teaching my pupils in future.
Getting back on my reflection, before we perform our play we had to
undergo a few preliminary process. Such as, the process of selecting, process
of adapting and last but not least process of performing. It is essential and
vital for us to be fully prepared before performing our play. All the important
aspects need to be considered before we could perform the play. This is to
prevent any unwanted incidents to happen and befall on us. In the midst of
selecting the script to be used for our group play, we had a minor setback.
There are so many good script to choose from, each and every one of our
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group members script have their own strong qualities. It took us quite a while
to pick the most suitable and appropriate script to be used for our group play.
In the end we had agreed upon, using my script, entitled The Hare and the
Tortoise for our play. The script is the most important aspect of the project.
The script is the blueprint or template of the play. Like a blueprint for a
physical construction, such as a house or multiple level building, if its faulty
the building will fail. It is impossible to envision a play without a script, as the
script is the base for what appears onstage.
We had chosen The Hare and the Tortoise script to be our group act mainly
because, it contain most of the important aspects that are required and
listed for, what a good script should have. It is a very wise decision for me
because we really need to consider all the aspects before performing. It will
make our planning and preparation of the play much easier.
There are no doubt, even though The Hare and the Tortoise is a good script,
it still require a few alteration. This minor changes is too suit our group so
that all the members in the group will have a part to play in it. The lack of
dialogues for the backup actors is one of the changes we had made. Now, we
had entered the adapting process. During this stage, we need to check again
the flow of the play according to the script. There might be some scene that
we need to adapt and change so that actors will be more comfortable in
performing. Since the original story is taken from an old folktale that is
originated from America, our targeted audience might not be aware of the
culture contain inside the original story, that is why we need to adapt it into
our own Malaysian culture so that they will feel more relatable towards the
story and will develop understandings towards the play. We also had included
some minor physical movement with songs that audience can follow along
during the play. We included participation of the audience in our play to
make it more interesting.

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During our group performance on the stage, we had the time of our life, and
the audience seems to love it. We had tried to include the audience as much
as possible during our group play to make it more interactive and interesting
and also to gain their attention. The play went smoothly but there are still
some problems we had encountered while performing, mainly because of our
own mistakes and slight problems with the P.A system. We should have
check it thoroughly before performing. Nevertheless, we manage to
complete the play magnificently
At the end of the day, I had gained so many inputs while completing this
assignment. I had learned many useful acting skills and how to plan and
prepare a play and also performing it on stage. Working in a big group had
taught me to be more cooperative and to contribute all my efforts and give
full commitment when working as a group, to achieve great results and
outcome. I learned how to be more patience and selfless, put the group
needs before me in order to complete the objective of the assignment. All of
this experience will benefit me in the near future and I surely will cherish all
the moments we shared together in completing this assignment.
All in all, I take all the comments positively and take it as the chance for me
to improve myself if I were to teach primary school pupils in future.
Personally, I must say that I should be thankful to those who give their full
cooperation and commitment when our group was doing the play. I do gained
lots of new and useful knowledge in learning this subject. As a future
teacher, I hope that I will be able to produce pupils who are knowledgeable
and competent, who possess high moral standards and who are responsible
and capable of achieving high level of personal well-being as well as being
able to contribute to the harmony and betterment of the family, the society
and the nation at large learning. In other words, the content of knowledge is
not an end in itself but a means to an end.

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